Color Cube
by psychedelic aya
Summary: Satoshi/Risa. There was once a puzzle cube. A very annoying puzzle cube, as Risa would say. And it's even more annoying that only geniuses can solve it...


**Authoress' Notes**: Was deleted due to authoress' hyperness. HUZZAH.

**DISCLAIMER**: Who owns this? ...Definitely not me. ALL HAIL THE MANGAKU WHO WEARS THE MYSTICAL BUNNY MASK!

---

**Color Cube**  
_By psychedelic aya_

"Mou!"

Harada Risa didn't know what to do. She'd been dealing with this… this _thing _for several _hours_ now (hours, or days?), but had she made any progress? _No_! This innocent cube (note that _innocent _is sarcasm) was driving her insane! She had found it lying around in their mansion's storage room, and thought it was kind of _cute_ since it was colorful… oh, but how wrong she was!

"Ne, ne, Riku—" Of course, when she was in a bind, there was only one person to call: her twin sister! She gave her older sibling an apathetic and pitiful puppy-dog look. "Help me!"

Riku, who was previously chatting animatedly with Daisuke, gave her mirror image a strange look. Instead of offering any sort of condolence or help, she merely said, "You're still playing with that toy, Risa?"

A fuming glance to the so-called _toy_, then another back at her sister. "Its not a toy! It's a complex structure, I say! Look at it! It's driving me nuts!"

Daisuke, being the ever-so-kind person he is, bent down and looked at the color cube critically. "Hmmm…" He put his hand on his chin and began observing, "Is that a puzzle, Harada-san?" They should know that he just _loved _puzzles.

She nodded, looking as exasperated as ever. "I think you have to put all the same colors together, but it's so hard to do!" She glared at the box and puffed her cheeks. "I just can't get it right!"

"Maybe I can try to solve it…"

A hopeful smile. "You really think so, Niwa-kun?" She grabbed the cube and handed it over to him. "Pretty please? Help me and I _promise_ that I'll _always_ help Riku sneak out of the house when she goes to see you!"

A blush, "Uhhh…" A glance to Riku, "Ummm…" Then a sheepish smile. "I'll try my best, Harada-san."

That was more than she could ask for.

And so, Daisuke took the cube and began examining it on all sides. "Hmm…" He tossed it around a few times, spun the colors a few times, twirled it around in his hands a few times. "I see…"

The twins watched him with great interest, as he spun around more of the colors, as if slowly weaving them together. When he was done, he looked quite disappointed. "Gomen ne, Harada-san," He murmured, as handing the cube back to her. "I couldn't complete all the colors, but I was able to do one."

He showed her one face of the cube. And just as he said, all red blocks were placed together.

Risa knew that Daisuke had tried his best, and so instead of looking unsatisfied, she forced out a smile. "That's alright." She took the _thing_ into her hands. "Thanks so much, Niwa-kun."

He smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. "Anytime, Harada-san." He was about to step back again, but a passing thought came by him and he suddenly suggested, "Hey, why don't we let Hiwatari-kun try it? He's a genius, so he probably would be able to—"

He wasn't even able to complete his sentence. Immediately, the younger twin exclaimed a "NO!" and went back to moping.

Daisuke gave a look to Riku, wondering what was wrong; but the only reply he got was a shrug.

"Hey, it's just a toy—" The older twin started, with a sympathetic look. She stopped though, seeing the glare her younger sister sent at her. With a roll of her eyes, "Okay, okay. A _complex structure_, if you say it is. But anyway, don't feel so bad about it! You'll solve it if you try hard enough." An affectionate pat on the head, then, "Just have some patience, 'kay?"

She would never admit it, but sometimes, her older sister _did_ say the right things to make her feel better. Risa nodded and gave a small grin. "Thanks, onee-chan."

The smile returned; but after that, Riku and Daisuke were back in their own world again.

And Risa, once more, was stuck—ALONE—with the accursed color cube.

She glared daggers at it, as it sat on her desk, looking all _naïve_ and _unknowing_. Well, to others it would probably seem that way. But to her, it looked all smug and arrogant, with a big, fat smirk on its face!

…If it had a face, that is.

She gave a determined face, as if trying to fight the smirk the cube sent out. "Oooh, don't you look at me that way!"

From the other corner of the classroom, Saehara arched his eyebrow. "Who the heck is she talking to?" He asked no one in particular, as watching Risa have a staring battle with the… cube. Which was odd, he thought, because that _thing _was an inanimate object, and it _definitely _didn't have any eyes to stare with. "Is Harada-imouto talking to toys… again?" (You see, he faintly remembered the bear Risa used to chat with and have tea parties with as a child. Heck, she even said the bear needed to go to the bathroom after every meal.)

Well, unluckily (for Saehara) Risa had heard him. "It's not a toy! It's a complex structure!" And with that, she grabbed the _toy_—ahem—_complex_ _structure_ into her hands and began spinning the different colors around frantically. "And just you wait! I'm going to solve it! ON MY OWN!"

And the rest of the class stared at her as she made her proclamation. There was a moment of silence, each student merely gazed with awe at her dramatic struggle; but after a few seconds, the usual noise began again.

---

It was a fierce fight, still going on. From that lunch break—no, even since the morning that she had found it, sleeping innocently inside that toy box (where it didn't belong, she thought, because it was not a toy—it was a complex structure)—and until now, that it was already dismissal time.

It was an unspoken war between Risa and the color cube. A battle of wits and smarts. A battle of patience and endurance.

And, as everyone expected—the color cube was winning.

"MOU! I swear, if this cube gets fixed, I'm going to kiss somebody!"

Of course, such a statement was made because she knew the stupid cube was _never_ going to get fixed. Or so she thought.

Risa was still spinning it around aimlessly, hopelessly trying to make all colors go together at once. She ignored everyone passing by, all the side comments she heard, all the offers of help—her sole concentration was on breaking the code of the cube.

That is, until, "I see you still haven't solved that puzzle cube, Harada-san."

She would have ignored it, had it been anyone else, had it been said like anyone else—but the problem was, Hiwatari Satoshi was _never _like anyone else.

She felt the bench she was sitting on shift a little as he sat on it, right beside her.

As her auburn eyes glanced at him—his cool and collected figure, his stoic face, the most deep ocean eyes…—she debated whether to simply ignore him and go on with messing the cube, or to pour out all her whining frustrations.

The latter won, since she hadn't talked to anyone ever since she started trying to decode the _thing'_s secret. And besides, who could ever _ignore_ Satoshi?

…Well, since she found boys with glasses uninteresting, she probably could. But that wasn't needed right now.

And so, "This… _thingy_ is just so stubborn!" She exclaimed, glaring at the _thing_ once more. "I've been at it all morning, and I don't even know what it's called!" She finally gave up and stopped spinning it; instead, she placed it at her lap, frustrated. "Mou!"

Slowly, behind his spectacles, Satoshi's orbs gazed at the cube, then at her. "It's called a Rubix cube." He stated, his voice as emotionless as ever. Then, as a passing comment (of advice, maybe?), "Patience is a virtue, Harada-san."

She didn't need to hear that. "I've been _patient _with it the WHOLE day!"

He seemed unaffected by her exasperated anger. Looking away, he murmured, "But you haven't been patient with yourself."

Risa didn't seem to get what he meant. "…Eh?"

"You've been trying to solve it all day," He grabbed the cube from her lap, ever so slowly, so that he wouldn't trigger any startling emotion from her. He knew he had to be cautious with his movements around Harada Risa—she was sometimes irrational, if not childish. Beautiful, he had to admit, but immature. "But you haven't tried to _think _of _how _to solve it. You're just pushing yourself to finish it, without even thinking of what process to actually take."

To her, such words were an insult. "What!? But I've analyzed it so many times, and—"

Her words were cut off by his finger on her lips. "Analyzing isn't enough." Satoshi continued. He then began spinning the cube, just like she did; the only difference was—he seemed to know what he was doing. "When you analyze, you need to process the data you've gathered to get an answer, a result." A pause, then, "…Just like how a computer works, you see?"

This aggravated her even more. She puffed her cheeks and glared at her feet. _This _was the exact reason why she didn't want Hiwatari Satoshi to solve the stupid Rubix or whatever cube for her! It was simply because he was _too_ smart! She wanted _normal _people like her to solve it—Riku, Daisuke (she liked to think Dark-san was a different person), or maybe even Saehara… not some genius boy who already finished this level twice over!

She tried not to snap back at him too angrily. "But I'm not like one of your computers!" She exclaimed, a little louder than she had originally meant to. (So much for the trying not to be too angry.) "I'm just a normal person! And I know you probably think I'm a little dumb for not being able to solve something you so easily can!" She crossed her arms and pouted. "Hmph!"

She was so frustrated that she didn't notice the tiniest bit of a smirk appear on his face. "I know you're not like one of my computers, Harada-san," Satoshi said, as continuing to twirl and twist the color cube. "No human has the capability of a machine—most especially not someone like you."

And again, she was insulted. Very. Risa opened her mouth to defend herself from his enigmatic yet offensive words, but he didn't give her a chance.

"Won't you even ask why?"

Despite the fact that her knuckles were clenched and her eyes were twitching, she decided to give in.

"Why, then?" She asked through gritted teeth.

He smiled; a puzzling smile with a secret—even far more complex than the color cube, and maybe thrice as hard to decode. Risa was surprised at this, for she had never seen Satoshi grin so openly at her. Her anger dissipated slowly, and was instead replaced with confusion. Perplexed, she decided to ask again, "W-why, Hiwatari-kun?"

He stood from the bench and placed the completed color cube back on her lap. Had she not been so occupied with her friend's strange behavior, she would've squealed at the sight of the _finally _color-arranged toy—er, complex structure.

Satoshi began to take his leave. Risa thought he wouldn't answer her, and she was naturally annoyed; but as he only took a few steps forward, she was startled to see him stop and slightly look back.

That smile was still on his face.

"…They're not nearly as amusing."

She was silenced by his answer—what was she supposed to reply to that?

Risa blushed and stared back at the _thing._ As she had expected, all colors were in place, all hues matching with each other. The moment Satoshi had held it, she knew it would turn out fixed.

This was the boy who had gone to college and back, after all.

A quiet atmosphere ensued, until, "So…"

Risa looked up again, at the sound of his voice. There was an uncharacteristic smirk on Satoshi's face.

She couldn't decipher why he was looking at her in such a way. Unless, of course, he—

"…Where's my kiss, Harada-san?"

**---**

**Authoress' Ramblings: **And that is where the weirdness and senselessness ends. Ah, I suck, I know. I'm sorry if it's so bad. And if it defies canon, in like, a _million_ ways. But ohwell.

Smile, someone up there loves you.


End file.
